The term Semitic was coined in 1781 to describe one peoples’ single language.

Evidence

Lawrence is backed in such statements by a respectable tradition stretching like a lighthouse beam through the whole nineteenth century; at its light-emanating center, of course, is “the Orient,” and that is powerful enough to light up both the gross and the refined topographies within its range. The Jew, the worshipper of Adonis, the Damascene lecher, are signs not so much of humanity, let us say, as of a semiotic field called Semitic and built into coherence by the Semitic branch of Orientalism. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 611 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The lexicographic revolution in Europe, however, created, and gradually spread, the conviction that languages (in Europe at least) were, so to speak, the personal property of quite specific groups – their daily speakers and readers – and moreover that these groups, imagined as communities, were entitled to their autonomous place in a fraternity of equals. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 345 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The term Semitic fused biblical genealogy with linguistics and race; The biblical account centers language as a defining component of peoplehood — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 632; The Semitic concept emerged from biblical philology rather than secular linguistics. (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The Semitic concept emerged from biblical philology rather than secular linguistics. #corroborates (0.92)
• The ‘Semitic’ field reduced individual people to signs within a scholarly construct #complicates (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 611
• Languages came to be seen as the property of specific national communities #complicates (0.78) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 345